It was, everybody agreed, an unsatisfactory way to retain the Ashes. Off-on, on-off, the match decided as much by Manchester’s old friends, stratocumulus, cumulus and altostratus as the more familiar Cook, Clarke or Bell.

The start was delayed, then curtailed, the game at once thrillingly alive with the loss of three English wickets and then moribund and ultimately lifeless, meandering to its conclusion in front of a sparse crowd, as admirably persistent as the rain that ruined the spectacle.

It was 4.39pm when the end was announced, the abandonment of play meaning that the Ashes would remain in England, for another five months at least. There was a spirited cheer from the few hardy, sodden souls remaining, and a temporary postponement of the beery game of call and response between the two sets of fans nearest the dressing rooms, but it was a sorry scene, truth be told.

Taste of success: Graeme Swann takes some well-deserved glugs of beer from a fan's glass as the England team celebrated with the hardy fans who stayed to the end to see England retain the Ashes

Smacker! Stuart Broad gets a kiss from a female admirer after England ensured the Urn would be staying

Captain marvel: Alastair Cook posed for photographs with the fans after the match was abandoned at 4.39pm following a rainy afternoon in Manchester

Secure: England retained the Ashes after rain thwarted Australia's victory charge in the third Test

Matt Prior and a smattering of others appeared to clench a fist of celebration, but the biggest explosion of joy came for a couple of members of the Lancashire ground staff, marching to the middle to clear the covers. They were the ones taking the adulation in the absence of any players.

There wasn’t even the ceremony of removing the bails (due to bad light), which signalled the victorious end of the 2005 series. No playing apparatus, no players, not even an umpire was visible as one of the greatest sporting rivalries drew to its premature close.

Graham Woodward, stadium announcer for the ECB, made the call, and the electronic scoreboard confirmed the news. It was over. In the most inadequate way imaginable, but over nevertheless.

Super hero: Swann signs autographs for fans in fancy dress after the game came to a close

Posers: Swann and a female fan grab a memento photo

Wunderbar! James Anderson poses with a couple of fans who came dressed as Bavarians

Joy: England players celebrate on the balcony after retaining the Ashes in 14 days

All over: Michael Clarke's side can only draw the series at best with wins at Durham and The Oval

Don’t let the weather fool you. The Ashes have been retained in the minimum time possible, equalling the briefest contested series of the post-war era. The urn was available on July 10 and is back in English hands on August 5. In real playing time, that amounts to 14 days — five at Trent Bridge, four at Lord’s, five here. Australia have won it quicker since 1945, but not England. However miserable this last day, that achievement is a genuine one.

Yes, Australia were devilishly unlucky here, and England came up short in three of the four innings played. Yet this is a series, not a single match. England have spent most of the summer on top and we will never know if Australia would have closed this game out. They were on top, but the two batsmen topping England’s averages in this series so far — Ian Bell and Joe Root — were in and the third, Stuart Broad, was still to come.

Australia were ahead on points here, though, obviously. Their batsmen posted a score of above 500 and then their bowlers restricted England to a total substantially short of that, before giving the hosts a real fright on the final morning at 37 for three.

Nun fun: James Anderson poses with a bloke in fancy dress

Happy days: Kevin Pietersen smiles after his century on Saturday proved sufficient to deny Australia a chance of winning the Test

Sign here please: Cook rewards fans for their persistence in the rain showers by signing autographs

Acclaim: Pietersen greets supporters at Old Trafford after the third test ended in a draw

Wobble: After three quick wickets on Monday morning, England were relieved when rain intervened

Ethic: Australia's bowlers chipped away at England during the third Test with some disciplined bowling

It wasn’t enough though, and that is Australia’s curse, too. They are not quite good enough. For all their misfortune in losing the first Test by just 14 runs and being denied a deserved victory here, Australia are inferior to England.

Michael Clarke remains the only touring batsman to reach three figures in a Test match on this tour and while most of the bowlers performed admirably here, they fell just short of enforcing the follow-on — which was the key to the game.

Indeed, it could be argued that the Ashes were won in the first hour of Sunday morning, when Broad and Prior steered England to within 200 runs of Australia’s first-innings total. Given the weather forecast, it was always going to be a struggle to fashion a life-preserving win from there. Monday’s morning session was a microcosm of Australia’s wider problems, the best and worst of the visitors on show.

The fall of three English wickets under pressure told its own story.

Poor return: Spin bowling remains a problem for Australia with Nathan Lyon picking up just one wicket

This has been a far from convincing performance from the hosts, who would have been soundly beaten by a better team such as South Africa, and have struggled, particularly with the bat.

Yet the opening two overs of the morning showed why Australia are not quite as unfortunate as many would like to imagine.Needing to take 10 wickets in what was already truncated play, the first three balls of the day from Ryan Harris were leaves by Cook, and all six balls of Mitchell Starc’s first over to Root went untouched.

This was an England team under pressure, and a young opening batsman thrust into the most stressful circumstances.

Crucial: Kevin Pietersen scored a century in the first innings to help England avoid the follow on

Contribution: Ian Bell is England's leading run scorer in the series with 381

He had to be made to play. As much as Australia sent a shiver up English spines by the end of that 90 minutes — the highlight of the day as it proved — the first flurry of punches didn’t land a glove.

There were some very bullish Australians in Manchester on the back of this display, yet the reality is that the tourists were annihilated at Lord’s, and made of game of it at Trent Bridge due mainly to a pair of freakish last-wicket stands.

In key areas, they have been second best, particularly spin bowling. Root has as many wickets as Australia’s two front-line spinners — Ashton Agar and Nathan Lyon — put together, and one fewer than Steve Smith’s four.

All of them, however, are swamped by the mighty Graeme Swann, whose 19 wickets make him the defining bowler in the series, just as Bell is the defining batsman.

Dry: England's No 6 Jonny Bairstow has struggled in the series so far with just one half century

The biggest worry for Australia should be that England have played nowhere near their potential. Cook and Jonathan Trott have been poor, Prior and Kevin Pietersen patchy, Jonny Bairstow a work in progress.

It will be tough in Australia if England continue playing like this, tougher for Australia if England’s batsmen recover their mojo.

Little has changed, really. Australia’s fast bowlers, particularly Harris and Peter Siddle, have always been useful, their spinners ordinary, while with the bat Clarke is out on his own.

So it proved. This was no way to retain the Ashes, but the truth is Australia did not do enough to reclaim them either. Manchester rained, but not on their parade.